My Photos

Month: April 2017

Tomorrow is May 1, or May Day, or “Workers of the World Unite” day. In Seattle, in the everlasting spirit of the WTO Riots of 1999, various leftist student, activist, and Anarchist groups get together and march for workers’ and immigrants’ “rights”. They normally start in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and march down Pine Street to the downtown area, ending up at Westlake Center. Previous years have seen various degrees of property damage and general mayhem. In 2016, five Seattle police officers were injured by various projectiles (rocks, wrenches) hurled by the marchers. This year, however, will be different. ED: Article from May 1, disruptions expected all day.

Welcome to Mob Rule

This is the first year of the despised Trump Administration, and the Seattle revolutionary elements have already signaled that this year’s “demonstrations” will be an order of magnitude larger. In fact, a Seattle City Council member, avowed Socialist Kshama Sawant, has actually urged the demonstrators to break the law. Yes, an elected member of the Seattle city government introduced a proposal to the council giving city employees the day off to join the protests. This proposal was unanimously adopted by the council. She has also gone so far as to urge the demonstrators to block streets. Seattle City Council Member says “Yes” to May Day Rioters. Many business owners in downtown Seattle proactively board up their windows and engage added security for May 1. I wonder how many of them will sit still for their government encouraging the violence.

Well, those business owners and their customers elected Sawant to the City Council. I wonder if they will regret that decision on Tuesday. And will Seattle’s Finest stand back and watch the rioters, or will they unmask and arrest all the rock-throwers and vandals? This year’s May Day may just be the Second Battle of Seattle, with similar results.

Like this:

The company where I work is in the Aerospace industry. A couple of years ago, corporate gave each employee a little rubber airplane with the company logo on it. One of our test engineering employees came up with a delightful way to deploy those cute little airplanes, on the cabinet next to his desk, often using his desk as overflow. He obviously got a whole bunch more of those little airplanes, and he labeled his space the “Fuji(i) Memorial Airport”. He has arranged his planes in dozens of interesting configurations. Herewith, the Airport.

Airport Solidarity

Spider-Plane!

The sign may be hard to read: When Planes Attack 3. Notice that our planes attack with a smile!

The two below are part of a set

Saint Patrick’s Day, Planes pay their respects to the Leprechaun

This one was arranged on a day when it snowed and was 28 degrees outside

Lining up for Takeoff. See the runway markers?

With a very large Hat Tip to Test Engineer Wes Fuji. Keep the Airport Coming!

Like this:

I admit it. I’m a Pacific Northwest Chauvinist. I believe that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the USA. We are never more than 2 hours from the ocean, or the mountains, here in Western Washington. Here are some of my favorite, beautiful, places in my corner of the Earth.

Mount Rainier, and Puget SoundLiberty Bell Mountain, in the North CascadesWinding Road-Eastern Washington State

It’s a ringer! I have always loved the shrub-steppe terrain just east of the Cascades, along the Columbia River. This kind of landscape was carved by receding glaciers, around 10,000 years ago. All of Washington State was buried under hundreds of feet of ice!

Tulip Fields near Mount Vernon, WA

Above is Deception Falls, which runs under US Highway 2, west of Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains.

Earth Day is a big fat hoax. Human beings are NOT “destroying” the planet. Human beings are not a blot on the environment; they were put here by God to be Earth’s stewards and its masters. Instead of feeling guilty about having been born, celebrate “Earth Day” tomorrow by getting outdoors. Take a walk or a ride through the streets or fields of your town, and thank God that we live on such a beautiful, bountiful planet.

Like this:

My followers will know that I am Jewish. Each year, my husband and I go to my sister’s house for Passover, and there are often over 12 people there. The “regular” Haggadah my sister normally uses dates from the early 1980s, and she thought she’d bring our Seder into the 21st Century this year. Now, my sister and her family are standard, Reform-Jewish Liberals, with all the usual proclivities. But this year, she went too far. You know you’ve got a problem when the title on the first page is

“Next Year in a Just World”.

Here is the first paragraph, under the heading “Candle Lighting”.

As we light the candles and welcome the glow of Passover into our homes, we pray that all those suffering around the world find light in the darkness. We pray that our experience tonight helps us to ignite the spark of justice within each of us.

What does that even mean? How does that have anything to do with Passover? Spark of justice??

Here are some really choice phrases found in this Internet, Liberal, Guilt-inducing, Diversity-spouting, “Haggadah”:

We praise God, Ruler of Everything…

May this first cup of wine rouse each of us to the injustice that persists in our world today.

May we recognize our own capacity to make a difference and commit ourselves to building a better world.

When we dip the Karpas into the salt water, we see the tears of all who suffer injustice, mingling with our hopes for life, rebirth and new possibilities for justice.

The matzah enables us to imagine what it was like to have only poor bread to eat, to be denied our right (emphasis mine) to live free and healthy lives.

Let all people have access to sustenance.

On most other nights, we allow the news of tragedy in distant places to pass us by. We succumb to compassion fatigue–aware that we cannot possibly respond to every injustice that arises around the world.

When spilling wine from our glasses to mourn the Egyptians‘ suffering during the ten plagues, let us pledge to aid those who suffer from modern afflictions–from HIV/AIDS to Ebola

Under the heading The Four Children:

What does the activist child ask?

The heading The Ten Plagues

They have us mourning the suffering of the Egyptians.

…let us turn our hearts toward the millions of people around the world suffering today’s plagues of hatred, prejudice, baseless violence and war… We protest the proliferation of violence…

We must fight for the rights of women, girls, and LGBT people until true equality is achieved.

At that point, even my nephew and my homosexual niece and her girlfriend were laughing so hard, no one could continue. We usually take turns reading portions of the Seder, but this year many of us said “Do I really have to read this?” And, in the end, my sister agreed that this was just a bit too much, even for them! She has already said they’re going back to the old one next year. Maybe I’ll try to find her something a little more traditional, but more up-to-date. Any suggestions from Jewish followers, or visitors to my blog, will be welcome.

Like this:

Unlike many younger people these days, I don’t normally take pictures of my food when eating out, or post them on social media (I am not on Facebook or Twitter anyway). But this time, on our cruise to Alaska last summer, I just had to capture this. It was the final night of the cruise, and dinner was especially fancy. I ordered the duck, and this is what was placed on the beautiful table in front of me.

The food actually looked too pretty to eat! So, what do you think that item is at the edge of the plate, at what pilots call the “twelve o’clock” position? I turned the plate around twice before sampling it, but I had no clue until I took a bite. It was potatoes! I likened it to a bit of hash-browns, cleverly formed into a shape like a pear. It was very good, and I know that this will be one of the most memorable meals I’ll ever have.

Like this:

On April 13, 1949, a huge 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit the Seattle area. Buildings in the downtown areas of Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia were badly damaged. The owner of this car probably wasn’t able to drive it home that day!

Structures in areas of the cities built on fill were totally destroyed, and streets crumbled when the ground shifted under them.

This has meaning for me, because on that day, my mother was 9 months pregnant with me, and overdue by two weeks. She got in the car and drove downtown to go shopping, and my dad was frantic, since she didn’t tell him she was going. Well, when that earthquake hit, she was standing on Third Avenue, looking in the window of the Bon Marche Department Store. The plate-glass window fell…inward, away from her, and she was unhurt. Three days later…Ta Dah!! I made my appearance.

I always like to say that it took a 7.1-magnitude earthquake to shake me loose!